To Maximin, My Well-Beloved Lord
and Brother, Worthy of Honour, Augustin, Presbyter of the Catholic
Church, Sends Greeting in the Lord.

1. Before entering on the subject on which I
have resolved to write to your Grace, I shall briefly state my
reasons for the terms used in the title of this letter, lest these
should surprise either yourself or any other person. I have written
“to my lord,” because it is written: “Brethren, ye have been
called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the
flesh, but by love serve one another.”14931493Gal. v. 13. Seeing, therefore, that in this
duty of writing to you I am actually by love serving you, I do only
what is reasonable in calling you “my lord,” for the sake of
that one true Lord who gave us this command. Again, as to my having
written “well-beloved,” God knoweth that I not only love you,
but love you as I love myself; for I am well aware that I desire
for you the very blessings which I am fain to make my own. As to my
adding the words “worthy of honour,” I did not mean, by adding
this, to say that I honour your episcopal office, for to me you are
not a bishop; and this I trust you will take as spoken with no
intention to give offence, but from the conviction that in our
mouth Yea should be Yea, and Nay, Nay: for neither you nor any one
who knows us can fail to know that you are not my bishop, and, I am
not your presbyter. “Worthy of honour” I therefore willingly
call you on this ground, that I know you to be a man; and I know
that man was made in the image and likeness of God, and is placed
in honour by the very order and law of nature, if by understanding
the things which he ought to understand he retain his honour. For
it is written, “Man being placed in honour did not understand: he
is compared to the brutes devoid of reason, and is made like unto
them.”14941494Ps. xlix. 12, version of the LXX. Why then
may I not address you as worthy of honour, inasmuch as you are a
man, especially since I dare not despair of your repentance and
salvation so long as you are in this life? Moreover, as to my
calling you “brother,” you are well acquainted with the precept
divinely given to us, according to which we are to say, “Ye are
our brethren,” even to those who deny that they are our brethren;
and this has much to do with the reason which has made me resolve
to write to you, my brother. Now that the reason for my making such
an introduction to my letter has been given, I bespeak your calm
attention to what follows.

2. When I was in your district, and was with
all my power expressing my abhorrence of the sad and deplorable
custom followed by men who, though they boast of the name of
Christians, do not hesitate to rebaptize Christians, there were not
wanting some who said in praise of you, that you do not conform to
this custom. I confess that at first I did not believe them; but
afterwards, considering that it was possible for the fear of God to
take possession of a human soul exercised in meditation upon the
life to come, in such a way as to restrain a man from most manifest
wickedness, I believed their statement, rejoicing that by holding
such a resolution you showed yourself averse to complete alienation
from the Catholic Church. I was even on the outlook for an
opportunity of conversing with you, in order that, if it were
possible, the small difference which still remained between us
might be taken away, when, behold, a few days ago it was reported
to me that you had rebaptized a deacon of ours belonging to
Mutugenna! I was deeply grieved both for his melancholy fall and
for your sin, my brother, which surprised and disappointed me. For
I know what the Catholic Church is. The nations are Christ’s
inheritance, and the ends of the earth are His possession. You also
know what the Catholic Church is; or if you do not know it, apply
your attention to discern it, for it may be very easily known by
those who are willing to be taught. Therefore, to rebaptize even a
heretic who has received in baptism the seal of holiness which the
practice14951495Disciplina. of the
Christian Church has transmitted to us, is unquestionably a sin;
but to rebaptize a Catholic is one of the worst of crimes. As I did
not, however, believe the report, because I still retained my
favourable impression of you, I went in person to Mutugenna. The
miserable man himself I did not succeed in finding, but I learned
from his parents that he had been made one of your deacons.
Nevertheless I still think so favourably of you, that I will not
believe that he has been rebaptized.

3. Wherefore, my beloved brother, I beseech you, by
the divine and human natures of our Lord Jesus Christ, have the
kindness to reply to this letter, telling me what has been done,
and so to write as knowing that I intend to read your letter aloud
to our brethren in the church. This I have written, lest, by
afterwards doing that which you did not expect me to do, I should
give offence to your Charity, and give you occasion for making a
just complaint against me to our common friends. What can
reasonably prevent you from answering this letter I do not see. For
if you do rebaptize, you have nothing to apprehend from your
colleagues when you write 243that you are doing that which they would
command you to do even if you were unwilling; and if you, moreover,
defend this by the best arguments known to you, as a thing which
ought to be done, your colleagues, so far from being displeased on
this account, will praise you. But if you do not rebaptize, hold
fast your Christian liberty, my brother Maximin; hold it fast, I
implore you: fixing your eye on Christ, fear not the censure,
tremble not before the power of any man. Fleeting is the honour of
this world, and fleeting are all the objects to which earthly
ambition aspires. Neither thrones ascended by flights of steps,14961496Absidæ gradatæ. nor
canopied pulpits,14971497Cathedræ velatæ. nor processions and chantings of
crowds of consecrated virgins, shall be admitted as available for
the defence of those who have now these honours, when at the
judgment-seat of Christ conscience shall begin to lift its accusing
voice, and He who is the Judge of the consciences of men shall
pronounce the final sentence. What is here esteemed an honour shall
then be a burden: what uplifts men here, shall weigh heavily on
them in that day. Those things which meanwhile are done for the
Church’s welfare as tokens of respect to us, shall then be
vindicated, it may be, by a conscience void of offence; but they
will avail nothing as a screen for a guilty conscience.

4. If, then, it be indeed the case that, under
the promptings of a devout and pious mind, you abstain from
dispensing a second baptism, and rather accept the baptism of the
Catholic Church as the act of the one true Mother, who to all
nations both offers a welcome to her bosom, that they may be
regenerated, and gives a mother’s nourishment to them when they
are regenerated, and as the token of admission into Christ’s one
possession, which reaches to the ends of the earth; if, I say, you
indeed do this, why do you not break forth into a joyful and
independent confession of your sentiments? Why do you hide under a
bushel the lamp which might so profitably shine? Why do you not
rend and cast from you the old sordid livery of your craven-hearted
bondage, and go forth clad in the panoply of Christian boldness,
saying, “I know but one baptism consecrated and sealed with the
name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost: this
sacrament, wherever I find it, I am bound to acknowledge and
approve; I do not destroy what I discern to be my Lord’s; I do
not treat with dishonour the banner of my King”? Even the men who
parted the raiment of Christ among them did not rudely rend in
pieces the seamless robe;14981498John xix. 24. and they were men who had not then
any faith in Christ’s resurrection; nay, they were witnessing His
death. If, then, persecutors forbore from rending the vesture of
Christ when He was hanging upon the cross, why should Christians
destroy the sacrament of His institution now when He is sitting in
heaven upon His throne? Had I been a Jew in the time of that
ancient people, when there was nothing better that I could be, I
would undoubtedly have received circumcision. That “seal of the
righteousness which is by faith” was of so great importance in
that dispensation before it was abrogated14991499Evacuaretur. by the Lord’s coming, that the
angel would have strangled the infant-child of Moses, had not the
child’s mother, seizing a stone, circumcised the child, and by
this sacrament averted impending death.15001500Ex. iv. 24, 25. Augustin believes that the
angel sought to slay, not Moses, but the child, for which he gives
reasons in his Quæstiones in Exodum. See Rosenmüller,
Scholia. This sacrament also arrested the
waters of the Jordan, and made them flow back towards their source.
This sacrament the Lord Himself received in infancy, although He
abrogated it when He was crucified. For these signs of spiritual
blessings were not condemned, but gave place to others which were
more suitable to the later dispensation. For as circumcision was
abolished by the first coming of the Lord, so baptism shall be
abolished by His second coming. For as now, since the liberty of
faith has come, and the yoke of bondage has been removed, no
Christian receives circumcision in the flesh; so then, when the
just are reigning with the Lord, and the wicked have been
condemned, no one shall be baptized, but the reality which both
ordinances prefigure—namely, circumcision of the heart and
cleansing of the conscience—shall be eternally abiding. If,
therefore, I had been a Jew in the time of the former dispensation,
and there had come to me a Samaritan who was willing to become a
Jew, abandoning the error which the Lord Himself condemned when He
said, “Ye worship ye know not what; we know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews;”15011501John iv. 22.—if, I say, a Samaritan whom
Samaritans had circumcised had expressed his willingness to become
a Jew, there would have been no scope for the boldness which would
have insisted on the repetition of the rite; and instead of this,
we would have been compelled to approve of that which God had
commanded, although it had been done by heretics. But if, in the
flesh of a circumcised man, I could not find place for the
repetition of the circumcision, because there is but one member
which is circumcised, much less is place found in the one heart of
man for the repetition of the baptism of Christ. Ye, therefore, who
wish to baptize twice, must seek as subjects of such double baptism
men who have double hearts.

2445.
Publish frankly, therefore, that you are doing what is right, if it
be the case that you do not rebaptize; and write me to that effect,
not only without fear, but with joy. Let no Councils of your party
deter you, my brother, from this step: for if this displease them,
they are not worthy to have you among them; but if it please them,
we trust that there shall soon be peace between you and us, through
the mercy of our Lord, who never forsakes those who fear to
displease Him, and who labour to do what is acceptable in His
sight; and let not our honours—a dangerous burden, of which an
account must yet be given—be a hindrance, making it unhappily
impossible for our people who believe in Christ, and who share with
one another in daily bread at home, to sit down at the same table
of Christ. Do we not grievously lament that husband and wife do in
most cases, when marriage makes them one flesh, vow mutual fidelity
in the name of Christ, and yet rend asunder Christ’s own body by
belonging to separate communions? If, by your moderate measures and
wisdom, and by your exercise of that love which we all owe to Him
who shed His blood for us, this schism, which is such a grievous
scandal, causing Satan to triumph and many souls to perish, be
taken out of the way in these parts, who can adequately express how
illustrious is the reward which the Lord prepares for you, in that
from you should proceed an example which, if imitated, as it may so
easily be, would bring health to all His other members, which
throughout the whole of Africa are lying now miserably exhausted?
How much I fear lest, since you cannot see my heart, I appear to
you to speak rather in irony than in the sincerity of love! But
what more can I do than present my words before your eye, and my
heart before God?

6. Let us put away from between us those vain
objections which are wont to be thrown at each other by the
ignorant on either side. Do not on your part cast up to me the
persecutions of Macarius. I, on mine, will not reproach you with
the excesses of the Circumcelliones. If you are not to blame for
the latter, neither am I for the former; they pertain not to us.
The Lord’s floor is not yet purged—it cannot be without chaff;
be it ours to pray, and to do what in us lies that we may be good
grain. I could not pass over in silence the rebaptizing of our
deacon; for I know how much harm my silence might do to myself. For
I do not propose to spend my time in the empty enjoyment of
ecclesiastical dignity; but I propose to act as mindful of this,
that to the one Chief Shepherd I must give account of the sheep
committed unto me. If you would rather that I should not thus write
to you, you must, my brother, excuse me on the ground of my fears;
for I do fear greatly, lest, if I were silent and concealed my
sentiments, others might be rebaptized by you. I have resolved,
therefore, with such strength and opportunity as the Lord may
grant, so to manage this discussion, that by our peaceful
conferences, all who belong to our communion may know how far apart
from heresy and schism is the position of the Catholic Church, and
with what care they should guard against the destruction which
awaits the tares and the branches cut off from the Lord’s vine.
If you willingly accede to such conference with me, by consenting
to the public reading of the letters of both, I shall unspeakably
rejoice. If this proposal is displeasing to you, what can I do, my
brother, but read our letters, even without your consent, to the
Catholic congregation, with a view to its instruction? But if you
do not condescend to write me a reply, I am resolved at least to
read my own letter, that, when your misgivings as to your procedure
are known, others may be ashamed to be rebaptized.

7. I shall not, however, do this in the presence of
the soldiery, lest any of you should think that I wish to act in a
violent way, rather than as the interests of peace demand; but only
after their departure, that all who hear me may understand, that I
do not propose to compel men to embrace the communion of any party,
but desire the truth to be made known to persons who, in their
search for it, are free from disquieting apprehensions. On our side
there shall be no appeal to men’s fear of the civil power; on
your side, let there be no intimidation by a mob of
Circumcelliones. Let us attend to the real matter in debate, and
let our arguments appeal to reason and to the authoritative
teaching of the Divine Scriptures, dispassionately and calmly, so
far as we are able; let us ask, seek, and knock, that we may
receive and find, and that to us the door may be opened, and
thereby may be achieved, by God’s blessing on our united efforts
and prayers, the first towards the entire removal from our district
of that impiety which is such a disgrace to Africa. If you do not
believe that I am willing to postpone the discussion until after
the soldiery have left, you may delay your answer until they have
gone; and if, while they are still here, I should wish to read my
own letter to the people, the production of the letter will of
itself convict me of breaking my word. May the Lord in His mercy
prevent me from acting in a way so contrary to morality, and to the
good resolutions with which, by laying His yoke on me, He has been
pleased to inspire me!

8. My bishop would perhaps have preferred to send a
letter himself to your Grace, if he had been here; or my letter
would have been written, if not by his order, at least with his
sanction. 245But in his
absence, seeing that the rebaptizing of this deacon is said to have
occurred recently, I have not by delay allowed the feelings caused
by the action to cool down, being moved by the promptings of the
keenest anguish on account of what I regard as really the death of
a brother. This my grief the compensating joy of reconciliation
between us and you may perhaps be appointed to heal, through the
help of the mercy and providence of our Lord. May the Lord our God
grant thee a calm and conciliatory spirit, my dearly beloved lord
and brother!